RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

My biggest gripe with lunches here is when they use too much sauce / ketchup / sugar poison.

Today we had delicious eggs, and they covered it with a big dollop of ketchup. Gross.

Or like when they'll give you fish that MIGHT be delicious, but it's covered in fried batter and sticky sugar poison sauce.

Or chicken with sauce. Sauce is gross. Ew.

If they had more seafood and vegetables and stuff that wasn't either fried meat or glucose trash, I'd feel better.

 

lately our most "special" meal has a boiled sweet potato that everyone peeled and ate like a banana. i said no thanks!

I... don't get it. Who doesn't like sweet potatoes? They're literally one of the healthiest foods you can eat, and they taste awesome.

But... but... they're sweet! Doesn't that make them poisonous filth???? 

lately our most "special" meal has a boiled sweet potato that everyone peeled and ate like a banana. i said no thanks!

I... don't get it. Who doesn't like sweet potatoes? They're literally one of the healthiest foods you can eat, and they taste awesome.

You always seem shocked and confused when someone has an opinion or experience that differs from you.

Personally I find starchy vegetables grown in Korean to have this weird consistency. Potatoes especially. Like chalk. A horticulturalist at a uni i used to work at explained it that the soil here has been fertilized in a certain way for so many thousands of years to grow primarily rice and so certain root veges have a certain taste or texture that may not suit everyone. I dont know if that's true. I was dubious at that time. But what do i know.

lately our most "special" meal has a boiled sweet potato that everyone peeled and ate like a banana. i said no thanks!

I... don't get it. Who doesn't like sweet potatoes? They're literally one of the healthiest foods you can eat, and they taste awesome.

To be fair, I prefer the orange sweet potatoes from back home.  I find the sweet potatoes here to be a bit dry, comparatively, and not as sweet. 

lately our most "special" meal has a boiled sweet potato that everyone peeled and ate like a banana. i said no thanks!

I... don't get it. Who doesn't like sweet potatoes? They're literally one of the healthiest foods you can eat, and they taste awesome.

Kumara (sweet potato) is disgusting to me. Whenever I taste it, it makes me want to barf. D:
I like sweet foods too!

  I find the sweet potatoes here to be a bit dry,

Yes. Try to make a decent mash with them and it can be a bit a challenge to get nice consistency.

I used to like sweet potatoes, until they became a staple of everything here.

So I had to move 2 students from a table because they were being bothered with the student in front and he wouldn't turn around. I told him multiple times and he just said he didn't want to in Korean.  So then this kid was literally pushing a desk behind him into other students.
Even after I had to sit on the desk to stop him from moving it he continued to try and push the desk into the other students.

I have never wanted to hurt a child before but this punk 5th grader made me  pissed. I wish kids got sent to the principal like when I was in school. Some of the 5th graders in this school are the worst kids I have ever taught with behaviour. Woooo saaaaaa 

I also don't peel the sweet potatoes, or any potatoes for that matter. A lot of the nutritional benefits are in the peel, and I like the peel, so I eat the whole thing. I used to get a few looks, but they don't pay me much mind anymore.

I also don't peel the sweet potatoes, or any potatoes for that matter. A lot of the nutritional benefits are in the peel, and I like the peel, so I eat the whole thing. I used to get a few looks, but they don't pay me much mind anymore.

I know that heavy metal contamination in the tubers is a serious problem in Korea due to many of the tubers being cultivated in contaminated soil near former mines, etc.

I always believed that removing the skins would help, but recent studies have indicated that they are not any more or less dangerous, so long as they are "baked" (not sure what boiling does).

Anyway, we will all die from something, sooner or later.

I also don't peel the sweet potatoes, or any potatoes for that matter. A lot of the nutritional benefits are in the peel, and I like the peel, so I eat the whole thing. I used to get a few looks, but they don't pay me much mind anymore.

I know that heavy metal contamination in the tubers is a serious problem in Korea due to many of the tubers being cultivated in contaminated soil near former mines, etc.

I always believed that removing the skins would help, but recent studies have indicated that they are not any more or less dangerous, so long as they are "baked" (not sure what boiling does).

Anyway, we will all die from something, sooner or later.

What about the skin on grapes? Contaminated with pesticide etc or safe?

I also don't peel the sweet potatoes, or any potatoes for that matter. A lot of the nutritional benefits are in the peel, and I like the peel, so I eat the whole thing. I used to get a few looks, but they don't pay me much mind anymore.

I know that heavy metal contamination in the tubers is a serious problem in Korea due to many of the tubers being cultivated in contaminated soil near former mines, etc.

I always believed that removing the skins would help, but recent studies have indicated that they are not any more or less dangerous, so long as they are "baked" (not sure what boiling does).

Anyway, we will all die from something, sooner or later.

I read your first part and thought of the bold part, but you already said it. It very well may be a bit worse, but I doubt that if the most of my concerns. I think sometimes it is best to just keep on doing and not worry about the rest. Anyway, as for the potarders, I would imagine, with my reasoning (?), maybe if you boil them with a steamer tray in the pot, then let them sit, heavy metals could release and then sink to the bottom. I doubt all of it will really mean much in the scheme of things unless you're eating tubers on the steady though. Also, just a question, is the validity of the "organic" section the same here as just about anywhere else? I mean, I wonder if organic here would mean that they have had tests for heavy metals in the soil, not only whether or not they use certain pesticides, etc.

I'm sure you are being funny, but when I first arrived in 20+ years ago, you would be hard pressed to find a Korean who would eat the skins on their locally grown grapes due to pesticide usage.

No idea about today, though.

I'm sure you are being funny, but when I first arrived in 20+ years ago, you would be hard pressed to find a Korean who would eat the skins on their locally grown grapes due to pesticide usage.

No idea about today, though.

On that note. This could be true, possibly, but have you ever noticed that the older generations also break the stem off of the pepper, then eat it down to the tip and throw the tip away. It is because they believe all of the pesticides accumulate in the tip since they hang upside-down. I had seen it, but it wasn't until a few years ago that someone explained it to me. Interesting...

So in my school we have a foreign language office where our desks are. Last year there were three of us (NETs) and then in December, one left. The school decided not to replace that person and instead cut the 2nd grade out and have us only teach 1st. Okay. Come March, I no longer have to share the classroom since there are only two of us and two classrooms. Also, I got a new boss and another senior teacher who's job in our department is blurry (aside from his normal teaching duties) to me. So I start sitting in the classroom full-time, mainly because I asked if I could change desks in the office (there were a lot of empty desks this year, staff cuts) because where I sit people are CONSTANTLY bumping into my chair, hard. It's jolting and frustrating. My boss denied my request. So, I just moved into the English classroom. No one but me is using it. Also, the classroom has windows in English, my office desktop does not and my office desktop is a huge POS.  Apparently, this is the wrong thing to do. I am being slightly shunned for it. So today, I went to go put the key back and tell the teacher with blurry job responsibilities that one of my students gave him a speech but forgot to make a copy. So I stood next to his desk, and called his name (in a polite tone) like 6 times. You could see that he heard me, but chose to ignore me. This behavior is utterly juvenile. There is zero reason to be upset over my NOT SITTING in the office. It is not like they would talk to me (conversationally) if did. Our office does not sit back and have conversations, at all. I used to talk to the Chinese teacher in the office (before she left) and we were told to take our conversations outside.  My boss has her little messenger (a young rookie teacher) tell me things she wants me to know. So, again, zero reason for me to sit in there.  And this mofo would have kept ignoring me if I hadn't raised my voice ever so slightly the sixth time.  I really hate some of the ridiculous childish hierarchy behavior here. Not one person is capable of thinking from someone else's perspective for even a second. Makes me want to stab people.   

Right.

I don't know how much of it is "fan death" type folklore and how much of it is actually fact-based/informed/educated practice.

Would be interesting to hear more from others, like peeling apples. eating kiwi skin and all, etc.

My middle school third graders have finals next week. Not midterms, mind you. Finals.

I guess the "we're going to be completely unproductive" period will begin early this year. After all, the test is the only thing that really matters, and they know it. Trying to get them to do anything afterwards is like pulling teeth, and now I'm going to have several months of it.

The first graders have nothing, because my school started doing a "free semester" for first graders last year, meaning no exams for them at the end of second semester. Could just be me, but I'd think it'd make more sense to make the first semester the free semester, so you could still test them on what they've learned at the end of the year. Oh well. What do I know.

The second graders have mid-terms, so that's still normal, I guess.

All of that, all around is just stupid.

My middle school third graders have finals next week. Not midterms, mind you. Finals.

I guess the "we're going to be completely unproductive" period will begin early this year. After all, the test is the only thing that really matters, and they know it. Trying to get them to do anything afterwards is like pulling teeth, and now I'm going to have several months of it.

The first graders have nothing, because my school started doing a "free semester" for first graders last year, meaning no exams for them at the end of second semester. Could just be me, but I'd think it'd make more sense to make the first semester the free semester, so you could still test them on what they've learned at the end of the year. Oh well. What do I know.

The second graders have mid-terms, so that's still normal, I guess.

The maintenance man swept away my neighborly spider's web.  I assume the spider got swept away as well 

I'm no Korean drum expert............. .... but they practice for hours every day.

A= Boom B= stick on side of drum (clicking sound)

A BBBBB
A BBBBB
A BB
A BB
A BBBBB

X100.

I could literally learn this in 10 mins. WHY do they practice for an hour a day every morning?